Donor's heart goes waste due to air ambulance fare

Pune: The heart of a brain-dead donor patient at the Nanded government hospital was available for harvesting and a recipient too had been identified in Mumbai. However, forbidding flying charges and restrictions on the use of the air ambulance that was to transport the vital organ saw the process being called off and the heart going abegging.

On Wednesday, doctors at the Dr Shankarrao Chavan government medical college and hospital in Nanded were waiting for the medical team from Fortis Hospital in Mumbai to arrive and start the process of retrieving the heart, liver, kidneys and cornea of the donor, Santosh More (28). More had suffered severe head injuries in a road accident and was declared brain dead on Tuesday.

Though talks were initiated with an air ambulance provider on Tuesday night, the negotiations collapsed on Wednesday evening. Incidentally, another air ambulance came to the hospital and transported More's liver to Global Hospital in Mumbai. Doctors, however, said, that it would not have been medically and logistically possible to transport the heart along with the liver in the same air ambulance. An administrative official from a private hospital said, "Airline operators have no fixed charges. They charge anything between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 10 lakh," he said.

The total cost of an organ transplant ranges anything from Rs 18 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. Nephrologist Sudhir Kulkarni said a liver transplant costs between Rs 18 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, a heart transplant Rs 30 lakh and Rs 50 lakh and a kidney transplant Rs 8 lakh and 10 lakh. Hospital officials and senior government health officials said the air ambulance operator on Wednesday was demanding almost five times the regular charges to take the beating heart to Mumbai, which finally led to the cancellation of the entire procedure. Sandeep Sinha, physician associate in cardiac surgery, Fortis Hospital, said the aircraft operator had consented to fly to Nanded on Wednesday morning. However, when the Fortis team reached the airport, they were told to fly back with the heart before 4.30pm. "Such uncertainty and extra charges put off the entire process and we lost the opportunity to bring the heart," he told TOI. The state government has shot off a letter to the Centre asking it to take immediate steps to curb such losses of vital organs.

With immense pride “India Live” celebrated its 10th national conference in Mumbai from 28th February to 3rd March 2019. The conference turned out to be a gold mine of information, with emphasis on academics, education and exchange of knowledge with leaders in interventional cardiology from both India and abroad.